Canadian True Crime - The Legacy Christian Academy Scandal [2]

Episode Date: August 3, 2023

[ Part 2 of 3 ] Caitlin Erickson makes a discovery that prompts her to give a statement to police.*Additional content warning: This series is about allegations of physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse of students and minors at their church-run Christian school. There is heavy focus on corporal punishment, details of grooming and sexual assault of minors, mention of anti-LGBTQ+ and racist rhetoric, mention of self-harm and suicidal ideation. There are also details of religious, spiritual and supernatural beliefs as they relate to these specific allegations.While these allegations have resulted in criminal charges, they haven’t yet been proven or tested in court.Look out for early, ad-free release on CTC premium feeds: available on Amazon Music (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast.Full list of resources, information sources, credits and music credits:See the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production, funded mainly through advertising. You can listen to Canadian True Crime ad-free and early on Amazon music included with Prime, Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and Supercast. The podcast often has disturbing content and coarse language. It's not for everyone. Please take care when listening. Hi there. Just letting you know that there have been several new developments in this case while we've been in production,

and the file got a bit too long to work with. So this is now part two of a three-part series, but don't worry, we are releasing them both at the same time. Thanks for your patience. Some additional content warnings. You'll hear about more allegations of physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse of minors. While a number of these allegations have resulted in criminal charges, they haven't been proven or tested in court. You'll also here mention of anti-LGBQ plus and racist rhetoric, as well as self-harm and suicidal ideation. Many of these details will be difficult to hear. And as a reminder, this series is not a blanket

criticism of religious freedom, Christianity, spirituality or any other religious beliefs. I don't think it needs to be stated that there are certainly Christian churches that indicate they have adjusted their traditional belief systems to be less judgmental and more inclusive and respectful of human rights and bodily autonomy. But this series obviously isn't about those churches. As we stated at the beginning of the last episode, it is specifically in reference to the fundamentalist and more extreme or rigid beliefs that are often held by Christians who identify as evangelical, charismatic, Pentecostal or similar. It's a very extreme, It's about the way this belief system manifested in practice at specific, publicly funded

church-run schools, and the many Canadian students who say it had an extremely negative impact on them, physically, psychologically and academically. If you identify as an evangelical Christian or similar, I know it can be difficult to hear things like this and I commend you for taking the time to listen, but I want to ask that you be mindful of not projecting your own personal experiences into this particular story and instead examined the wider issues at play here. If you're sensitive to topics like these, please consider if this episode is right for you. And if you decide to keep listening, please take care. Where we left off, it was 2005 and Caitlin Erickson was approaching the end of grade 12 at

Christian Centre Academy, the school now known as Legacy Christian Academy. She didn't really know what she was going to do after she graduated, but what she did know was that she was not going to be staying on for two more years of Bible college. Caitlin ended up travelling to the United Arab Emirates to stay for a few months with her grandparents, who were living and working there at the time. It was the trip of a lifetime. After she returned to Saskatoon, she attended a church service led by Pastor Keith Johnson. And that's when she had a revelation.

Our very Texan Republican pastor got up at the front of the church and just started saying the most heinous things about people from the Middle East and calling everyone terrorists and just saying, I can't even repeat the one thing he said, but the feeling behind it was take a nuclear weapon, flatten that part of the earth and start again. And he's from the pulpit as the pastor saying, you know, just regurgitating this garbage to the congregation. And I had spent, you know, months in the Middle East and I was like, they're some of the kindest. You know, I had a great experience. People were so kind. And it was an amazing travel experience. It was that light bulb went off that I was like, this guy has no idea what he's talking about. And then I realize I'm like, these people actually have little to no life experience that are sitting around me.

And that's why they're sitting here soaking this up. And so I just got up and I left. And it was like once that light bulb went off and I saw that, I just couldn't unsee everything. Caitlin's decision to leave the church caused some problems at home. And she decided to pack her car and move to Alberta for a fresh start. She had nowhere to go. But the first night she found some new friends and found somewhere to live.

And over the next few months, she had more realizations. Then it was really after being out for a couple months and being on my own and working and having these new friends, you know, I was such a shock to me people being like, you're so funny and you're so smart and we love hanging out with you. And I'm like, really? Because I had just been shit on for 12 years by the church and school and had all this like negative like you're a bad person and nobody loves.

likes you and your peers don't like you and like they just break you down as a person too. And so to have that and I was like, okay, and I'm like, maybe I was in a cult. And so I did seek, you know, some professional help right away, which I'm so fortunate to this day. It's like if I hadn't done that, you know, I would not be as far down the road as I am in my healing journey. I've been in counseling for 17 years now. So. Caitlin ended up studying criminal justice at university. It was only after she graduated and was working in the justice field that she started to realize that hitting children with paddles to make them more obedient

may not have just been morally wrong, but also completely illegal. As you'll remember from 1988, corporal punishment was only legal in Saskatchewan schools if four strict conditions were met. The punishment had to be amazing. immediate, appropriate to the infraction, only used on children age 2 to 12, and without any implement like a paddle, cane or strap. These rules were already in place four years before Caitlin started attending the school known as Legacy Christian Academy. Yet the statement of claim

suggests the school continued to paddle students with implements for years after that, including teenage students. And it also suggests they didn't stop, even as the Supreme Court of Canada completely outlawed corporal punishment in schools in 2004. It's not like they didn't know. Caitlin and other students would tell CBC's Jason Warwick that not only were school officials acutely aware of the law, but they actually tried to sidestep it. Quote, the school's director handed out waivers in late 2003 in anticipation of the Supreme Court ban, asking parents to allow staff to continue paddling their children. Some parents refused to sign the document.

So Caitlin had clarity on the laws around corporal punishment, but whether or not to do anything about it was a separate issue. But I did definitely carry that into my mid to even like a little bit into my late 20s where nothing I did mattered anyways because they had taught us that if you leave the bubble, you're going to die. And they would tell us stories of kids who had died and stories of adults who had died. And you're already programmed to wait for that shoe to drop. So you have to like get the courage to leave. And then when you leave, you still have all this indoctrination in you. So that's very loud. So then you have to unlearn that. And then you have to try and figure out how to function

in society as a person when you haven't gone through normal developmental steps that every other child generally goes through. So then you have to go through those in your 20s. And, you know, our school, there's never been actual full proper reunions, like school reunions, like every other schools have. And, you know, looking back, like even Christian schools here in the city have them. And it's like, yeah, that's not normal. If majority of people who leave your institution, are totally so traumatized that they don't even want to get together with people. Since she'd moved away from Saskatoon, she'd lost contact with many of her former classmates, but she'd heard that as of 2009, John Oliver Bolkin, her former school director

and principal, was no longer employed at Legacy Christian Academy. She was reassured to hear the word on the street that his employment was terminated. In the meantime, another former student. was reflecting on their own experience and they knew that Caitlin now worked in the justice field, so they contacted her to ask if there were grounds to go to the police. Caitlin shared what she knew and they decided to keep in touch and think about it. But then she made a discovery that changed everything. But what really motivated me is when my main physical abuser and emotional and psychological

abuser, I found out that he had opened another school. And because I was so removed from Saskatoon after I left, I didn't know that. And so I found out about that right before COVID. And so I just was like, what? This is continuing. Hearing that John Oliva Bokin had opened Grace Academy was really my, I need to go forward. There is no way. There's no way that I can stay silent on this. So I just went into the police station the one morning and I went in with my yearbooks and I was just like, got in line, went up to the front desk and he looked at me and he like looked at my yearbooks and he's like, this is going to be historical, isn't it? And I was like, I guess so, yeah. And I just like started crying. So I wrote like 15 pages double sided of statement and just

it just kept like, so I was there for a couple hours, just writing and writing and writing. Caitlin says the police were fantastic. They told her they were going to assign a special investigator to this case, and she agreed to come back and provide more statements and answer more questions as necessary. I asked her how it felt when she walked out of the station. It was like a bag of bricks, you know, just being offloaded. And when I walked out of there, I was like, even if nothing happens with this, like just for the first time,

telling my story to someone and having it validated was like so healing to me and knowing that when you're gaslit for so long to being in that type of environment, just having somebody validate your feelings and tell you, you know, you're not crazy. This is totally psychotic. So, I mean, that was super healing. And I ended up kind of reconnecting right after that with someone I went K to 12 with. And I told him, I said, I went to police. This is what I did. And I told that other former student that I'd talked to. And yeah, so within, by the end of that year, there was like 18 that had gone to police.

Like Caitlin, many of them had invested in professional therapy to make sense of their childhood and have a better understanding of their experiences. But that didn't mean that coming forward was easy. As Caitlin describes it, their years of gaslighting, conditioning, and indoctrination was intentional. They were set up to be the perfect victims

who blindly submit to authority, readily doubt the reality of their own experiences, and are fearful of suffering any number of consequences for speaking up. Growing up with the inability to complain and the inability to express yourself, it creates the perfect victims in people. And it takes so much time like getting out

deconstructing, going to therapy, until you get to a point where you're like, okay, yes, this was wrong. And even some people, like, some of the people who have come forward and are very vocal and, you know, some of the people we have on our podcast, like I had to actually show them the case law,

and I had to show them what the child abuse protocols were and show them that since 88 in Saskatchewan, you cannot hit a kid with an implement in a school since 1988. And just the light bulb going off for these people being like, okay, holy crap. Like they actually still had us brainwashed that it was legal. Caitlin and the growing group of former students wanted to go public with their allegations,

but they also wanted to give the police time to investigate first. They hoped that it wouldn't be too long before criminal charges were laid. As they waited, they decided to meet up with some law firms to see if they had any other options. They struck up around. rapport with Shaftstein LLP, but couldn't afford the retainer for a class action lawsuit. They told the law firm they would need to think about it.

So then fast forward several months and police haven't laid any charges. This is in 2022. So we reached out to a couple reporters that had done pieces on the school and church in the 80s and 90s and they tried to expose stuff and they had been pretty well versed in that place and they've been, you know, some of our local journalists who have been around forever, so they know some of the stories. One of those journalists is Jason Warwick for CBC News. But back in the 90s, he was with the Saskatoon-Star Phoenix when he authored an article

titled Corporal Punishment in Schools on Way Out. At the time, the Saskatchewan provincial government was planning to ban the practice and many people had opinions. One of the people quoted on the pro side of corporal punishment was Lou Brunel, the principal of the school known at the time as Christian Center Academy. He's also one of the defendants named in the class action lawsuit. In the article, Brunel confirmed they used paddling as one of many methods of discipline at the school, quote, We seldom use it, but it's there. The problem is so often it's done incorrectly. Parents hit their kids in retaliation and anger. That's child abuse. When it's done correctly and properly,

it's a wonderful tool and children do respond to it. A year after that, in 1997, journalist Jason Warwick wrote a feature article for the Star Phoenix Weekend Extra, titled Inside Saskatoon's Christian Center Academy, which examined the unusual practices of the school, from the ACE curriculum and system to their strict rules and harsh discipline. In this article, Principal Lou Brunel said the paddle is used as a last resort, but added some students wouldn't have responded to anything but physical correction, quote, When you paddle, it creates a impression. Children are tactile. They remember and then reconsider. Don't confuse loving, orderly, controlled discipline with malicious, angry abuse. Abuse is wrong. As a sidebar, principal Lou Brunzel,

Brunel was also featured in a March 1997 article in McLean's magazine, titled Spare the Rod Spoil the Child, accompanied by a photo of him sitting at his desk holding a wooden paddle with a determined look on his face. In any event, journalist Jason Warwick is now with the CBC, and when he was approached by Caitlin Erickson and the former students, he agreed to investigate their allegations. We did an investigative piece with CBC and Jason worked in an amazing job and then it just blew up. And it was national news for the whole month of August in 2022 and trending in Canada. And people started coming forward, left right and center. So how did Legacy Christian Academy and Mile 2 Church respond to these headlines?

There was not a peep from Pastor Keith Johnson. He'd reportedly stepped down as pastor in 2015, replaced by one of his sons, Brian Johnson. This was the same year that the church rebranded to Mile 2 Church. After the CBC News investigation was published, Pastor Brian Johnson emailed a brief written response to journalist Jason Wurrick, saying in part, quote, We are grieved to learn of former students who feel they were subjected to abuse during their time.

at CCA, Christian Center Academy, we encourage and support any former student who feels this way to file a report with the police so these matters can be investigated and dealt with properly and legally. Exorcism has never been practiced in our school, and we are unaware of any instance where this might have occurred. Brian Johnson added that the school does not discriminate against anyone who is LGBTQ and has not paddled anyone there in more than two decades, which means before 2002. although he declined to provide specific information about it to CBC News. This statement was received by the former students about as well as you can expect because the alleged paddling of the senior girls volleyball team happened in 2003.

Coy Nolan and Caitlin Erickson alleged they were paddled in 2004 after the nurse kicked Principal John Oliver Bolkin from Coy's hospital room. And also in 2004 was the alleged exorcism and paddling to get rid of Coy's so-called gay demons. And Caitlin alleges she was also paddled multiple times in 2005. Pastor Brian Johnson's carefully worded claim that exorcism has never been practiced in the school, effectively insinuated that what Coy Nolan says happened to him was irrelevant, because even though the alleged incident was led by school principal John Oliver Bolkin, it happened at Koi's home, not the school.

Former volleyball team captain Christina Hutchinson, one of the students who confirmed the girls' volleyball incident, also had something to say about this exorcism claim. Christina told CBC News that when she was about eight years old, she was asked to recite the school prayer for the class, but she was nervous and froze. Evidently, the teacher saw this as a major problem. Christina recalls for a week after that,

her teacher kept her inside during recess, squeezing and rocking the eight-year-old in her lap while speaking in tongues. When Christina's parents found out, she says they contacted school administrators to say, quote, she doesn't have a demon, she's just shy. When parents' Pastor Brian Johnson sent over this first emailed statement,

he also promised interviews to CBC News and the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. He pulled out of both. The following day, the school and church put out a more formal joint statement of response through their websites and social media. It's not a long statement, but here's some excerpts from it edited for clarity and brevity. We are all heartbroken to learn the stories of some former students, about their experiences from over 15 years ago. The current staff and leadership are hearing some of these stories for the first time,

and we condemn any acts of abuse that previous leaders committed. We have offered numerous public and private apologies over the last seven years as we have learned of the allegations, and will continue to offer apologies and assistance to the best of our ability. Caitlin Erickson described this as contradictory, not to mention, patronizing. She confirmed that neither she nor any of the same. of the other former students who have given statements of criminal complaint ever received an apology from the church or school, either privately or publicly. CBC News asked the church and school for evidence

of these previous apologies, but there was no response. The statement also says, Our church and school have undergone significant leadership and staff changes in the last seven years. The people that are accused of these actions are no longer here or affiliated with us in any way. Pastor Brian Johnson is of course the son of Keith Johnson and has been affiliated with the church and school for most of his life. After he graduated from the school in 2003, he has been frequently observed as an employee of the church and school and has been seen preaching frequently in the church in the lead up to 2015, when he took over from his father. as pastor. But while Keith Johnson is one of the people accused and named as a defendant in the class action lawsuit, Brian Johnson isn't. But according to former students, there were at least

three other people accused who continued to hold key positions at the church and school after this 2015 changeover that the statement refers to, and they were still in these positions when the allegations went public. You'll remember former principal Lou Brunel, the one pictured holding a wooden paddle in McLean's magazine in 1997. The statement of claim lists him as a principal defendant who was employed at the school until 2002, but he returned in 2014 and was still serving as principal of Legacy Christian Academy when the CBC investigation hit the headlines. There was even a dedicated page on the school's website called Principal's message, which featured a photo and message from Lou Brunel, Principal.

The internet wayback machine indicates that page was removed from the website on August 11, 2022, less than a week after the statement released by the church and school claimed, the people accused of these actions are no longer here or affiliated with us in any way. Brian Johnson's own mother, Tracy Johnson, is another person named as a general defendant in the class action lawsuit. She is also Keith Johnson's wife, although they have reportedly been separated for a while. According to the statement of claim, Tracy Johnson has been a Christian counselor to members of the church and school from 1982 to present. And there's also Ken Schultz,

who is named as a principal defendant in the class action lawsuit with specific allegations that include sexual assault of a minor aged between four and six years of age. There's a lot more on that later in this episode. But according to the statement of claim, Ken Schultz was a director and vice principal of the school for a period of time, but also an elder of the church from 1982 to present.

All of this information serves to contradict the church and school's insistence that the people accused are no longer affiliated. But their statement actually backfired on several different levels. The law firm, Shaftstein, LLP, contacted Caitlin Erickson immediately, saying they could not believe the church's response. They were all fired. up and offered to forego the retainer and proceed with the class action lawsuit without taking any money up front from the former students. So about a week later, Caitlin Erickson and Grant

Jay Schaffstein held a press conference to announce the class action lawsuit, seeking up to $25 million in damages from Legacy Christian Academy and Mile 2 Church. The alleged abuses are, of course, horrific. This church and school exhibits all the hallmarks of what we often think of as a cult. During my tenure in that building, I was subjected to physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse. The staff tried to physically and psychologically break me. Despite their best efforts, they were not successful, and that's why I'm able to stand here today. The statement of claim outlines the allegations you heard in the last episode. plus a few more that you'll hear about later in this episode.

The former students say they attended school expecting a safe and nurturing environment that would foster personal academic and spiritual growth. But instead, they alleged they became victims of abuse and mistreatment, perpetrated by those in positions of authority who should have protected them. The class action lists the far-reaching impact of this abuse, or the harms they are seeking damages for. Because it wasn't just their experiences at the time, it was also the way their trauma continued to impact them in adulthood,

impairing their self-worth, confidence, self-esteem and personal identity. Many blamed themselves for the abuse and have battled severe emotional trauma, anxiety, depression, and even contemplated suicide. Their experiences have affected their ability to form and make, maintain healthy relationships, including parenting. Many find themselves in abusive romantic relationships or friendships, and they report difficulties relating to people in positions of authority.

Some find themselves demonstrating inappropriate subservience, and others just find it difficult to trust. When a child is repeatedly told they're a troublemaker or a naughty child for years and years, they end up believing it, and that can result in an ever-present worry that they might do something wrong without even knowing it and get into trouble. This has affected their ability to pursue educational and career opportunities and find peace and stability in their lives. The announcement of this class action lawsuit, hot on the tales of the CBC News investigation

and the official response from the school and church, continue to make headlines both. Saskatchewan and across Canada. It made some former students so angry that they were prompted to come forward and join the others in speaking out. Some were the children of named defendants. One of them was Keith Johnson's stepson, the child of his former wife Tracy Johnson and her first husband.

That stepson was once known as Garrett Johnson and he's a former employee of the school and church, but he since changed his surname back to his biological fathers. After CBC News published its investigation, Garrett Davis confirmed that all of the allegations are 100% true, adding that he wanted to lend his solidarity to those speaking out, including his own son. He confirmed to CBC News that he was present multiple times when students were paddled hard enough to leave them limping and bruised, and he was also one of the adults present for Coy Nolan's gay exorcism. Davis explained to CBC News that he regretted not reporting any of it to the

authorities and described himself as both a victim and a perpetrator. Quote, I was led, taught and told to manipulate, intimidate and gaslight. He said during his own childhood as the stepson of Pastor Keith John. He was paddled regularly and brainwashed into believing the outside world was evil. He said the church often involved itself in political activism and confirmed student reports that they were forced to campaign publicly for politicians favored by Keith Johnson. Garrett Davis also said that as a youth pastor, he grew increasingly conflicted by the violence and intimidation at a supposedly Christian institution, but he knew that there were swift consequences

for anyone who dissented. So after he and his wife decided to stop paddling their own children, they lied to his stepfather about it. But Keith Johnson eventually discovered the truth, and Garrett says he berated him for it, telling him he needed to be spiritually circumcised and quote, you aren't fit to be a father or to work at the school. After that, Garrett and his family moved to Portland, Oregon. They lost everything because all of their friends and financial assets were tied to the church, but he describes it as the best decision he ever made. And so too does his son.

19-year-old Garrison Davis is a former student and told CBC News that he's glad. his immediate family got out of what he described as a cultish community that left a long trail of abused and damaged people. Garrison also confirmed he was repeatedly paddled as late as the spring of 2012. Quote, it's not just getting swatted with someone's hand, it's a hard wood paddle that they had specially made, it would absolutely leave pretty intense bruising and would be sore for days afterwards. Other students who came forward reported being paddled for struggling with an undiagnosed learning disability and being forced to kneel in the school stairwell and hold stacked books with their arms extended until their muscles failed. One student said, quote, these people left a big scar on my life.

It was a little cult. Another recalled the director screaming and yelling at her in his office, quote, he said I was filled with the devil and giving in to the dark side. The response by Mile 2 Church and Legacy Christian Academy indicated they'd undergone a change in leadership and the people accused are no longer employed there. This appears to be less than true, but as it turns out, several of those people had simply moved on to similar positions of authority

at other Christian schools. Duff Freezin was one of the ones. of them. He was a former teacher and principal of Legacy Christian Academy, alleged to have been involved in the paddling incident with the senior girls volleyball team. He had by this point moved to the city of Prince Albert, about an hour and a half drive north of Saskatoon, where he was the principal of Regent Academy, a similar Christian school to Legacy Christian Academy. And of course there was John Oliver Bolkin, former director and principal who was reportedly fired from Legacy Christian Academy.

But he simply started up his own school, Grace Christian School, in Saskatoon. And as reported by the Star Phoenix, the Saskatchewan Government Ministry of Education had received two separate complaints in relation to that school. In 2016, a former teacher of Grace University of Grace. Christian school reported seeing another staff member pulling children by the ear and squeezing a child's head in his hand as a form of punishment. The Saskatoon police confirmed that they were aware of the complaint and communicated with the Ministry of Education at the time who were supposed to have oversight. Nothing came of that complaint. Two years after that in 2018, a similar complaint

was reported and again nothing came out of it. And after this news broke, there was much public outrage and the church that rented part of its building to Grace Christian Academy decided to terminate the lease and evict that school from the building. They weren't affiliated as a total institution and Forest Grove Community Church issued a statement saying, we are grieved for the students and families that will be affected and did not make this decision lightly,

but believe it is best for all involved. The United Church of Canada would also issue a statement in support of the former students, saying the experiences described by them should never be associated with any place of learning or with any Christian context. Quote, we reject the theology and practices

surrounding the beliefs espoused by the school. We reject transphobic and homophobic beliefs associated with some expressions of Christianity, including Legacy Christian Academy. The growing list of complaints were bad enough, but it also revealed a much wider issue, a lack of oversight by the Saskatchewan government's Ministry of Education that led to these incidents happening

and a lack of action that allowed them to continue without consequence. Because while it might be easy to think of these schools as private Christian schools, they actually aren't. They are qualified independent schools that since 2012 have received public funding from the Saskatchewan government with the stated goal of providing parents with more options to educate their children according to their beliefs. So for more than 10 years, approved qualified independent schools like Legacy Christian Academy have received 50% of the per-student funding.

that public schools get. But to be eligible for this public education funding, these schools have to agree to government oversight, inspections and supervision by the Ministry of Education. They are supposed to abide by a strict set of criteria which include making sure all their teachers are qualified, that they use a curriculum that is properly accredited and provide accurate records and financial statements.

But the many allegations reported in the CBC investigation and the class action lawsuit indicated Legacy Christian Academy had not been fulfilling its obligations yet continued to receive public funds. Between 2020 and 22, the Ministry of Education gave the school nearly $1.5 million, an average of about $750,000 a year. And get this, it would come out later that Legacy The SC Christian Academy was using that money not for education or student enrichment, but to build up a sizable surplus.

And they employed supervisors who weren't certified teachers right up until September of 2022, the month after the CBC investigation went public. Former students, as well as politicians from the NDP, Saskatchewan's opposition party, called for the Education Minister to, either shut down Legacy Christian Academy or freeze government funding until the allegations are investigated. The ministry declined interview requests, but in a written statement, said no action will be considered until the police investigation is complete. It also claimed to have not received any complaints regarding Legacy Christian Academy since the government started funding qualified independent schools in 2012. But Caitlin Erickson shared an email she wrote to Minister of Education Dustin Duncan

two months before the allegations were made public. In it, she mentions all the time she's contacted the ministry to advise them of complaints, yet nothing is ever done. She received a reply from the minister's assistant confirming receipt of this email, but nothing more. It was the announcement of the class. class action lawsuit that prompted some action from education minister Dustin Duncan. He described the allegations as extremely troubling and announced he will appoint independent administrators

to increase oversight at Legacy Christian Academy as well as Grace Christian School and Regent Academy. He also had the teaching certificates of those named in the class action revoked and asked the Saskatchewan Professional Teachers Regulatory Board to inventing. the complaint, but all three schools would remain open. The group of former students of Legacy Christian Academy described this as the bare minimum and spoke of concerns that this increased oversight might not be truly independent because of the school's close political ties to the Saskatchewan government. Since 2007, the Sask Party has held a majority government in Saskatchewan.

Regular listeners might remember this particular party from our Colin Thatcher series a few months ago. The same party and same government criticised for lack of judgment for allowing one of their members to invite convicted wife killer Thatcher to their throne speech about getting tough on crime. In any event, independent administrators were appointed to the three schools, and within just a few weeks, Grace Christian School hit the, the headlines again. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education reported that John Oliver Bolkin would not cooperate with administrators, leading them to decide that it was in the public interest to shut the school down. The former principal declined all requests for comment. Caitlin Erickson told CTV News it was a right thing to do, but there is a lot more to be done. After all, the Ministry of Education was supposed to be protecting students by making sure the qualified independent schools were following the rules they agreed to in exchange for public funding.

Yet John Oliver Bolkin, who was not a qualified teacher, was able to get his own school started and funded in the first place. And the Ministry of Education allowed him to operate it for years, even as several complaints were. were made that indicated he wasn't following the rules. So, where was Pastor Keith Johnson all this time? A month after the allegations were made public, the media reported that court officials weren't able to track him down to serve him with the class action lawsuit documents. Keith Johnson's granddaughter, Cassie Closson,

a former student and member of the church and school, told CBC News that this kind of response is to be expected. from him. Quote, he just has a very big inflated ego and I don't think he could ever come to the point where he would actually admit any wrongdoing. It's just kind of like a classic cult leader. Cassie said as an adult, she cut off all contact with her grandfather. But former students of Legacy Christian Academy were outraged when Keith Johnson's son, Pastor Brian Johnson gave a Sunday sermon at Mile 2 Church that appear to be an obvious attempt to pacify those who remain in the congregation. In the sermon, which was available on the church's podcast and YouTube channel, but has been

removed now, Johnson says, quote, A lot of stories, some good and some bad, have come out in recent weeks. And here's all I have to say to that right now. Some of the stories are true. Some of the stories I think are exaggerated. Some of them, I don't know if they're true or not. We've got to trust that the truth is going to come to light, and we want the truth to come to light. Former student Stephanie Hutchinson told CBC News this style of gaslighting succeeded in silencing them when they were children, but not anymore.

Quote, he's trying to spin a tale that just isn't true, but there's enough people coming forward now. They're going to fight tooth and nail until this place goes down. After former students raised concerns about the Ministry of Education's lack of oversight, they started taking a closer look at the requirements for qualified independent schools to be eligible to receive government funding. As well as reporting and accountability requirements, they noticed that there were also strict requirements for the curriculum itself. Qualified independent schools must provide approved programs and courses

in accordance with the provincial curriculum policy. The curriculum must not be inconsistent with the goals of education for Saskatchewan. You'll remember in part one, we mentioned the US-based accelerated Christian education curriculum introduced by Pastor Keith Johnson, that system of self-directed learning that requires students to complete workbooks or paces silently in segregated cubicles.

But it's not just the learning style, of the ACE curriculum that has attracted criticism. The content itself has been widely discredited because all information is filtered through a heavily evangelical Christian worldview that promotes scientific misinformation and encourages judgment and discrimination. And that's exactly the way it was intended.

The founder of the curriculum, Donald Ray Howard, a self-described fundamentalist Christian, was quoted saying, We do not build Christian schools primarily to give a child the best education or teach him how to make a good living. Teaching him how to live and to love and serve God are our primary tasks. The ASEC curriculum not only puts students at cognitive and conceptual disadvantage, but it encourages them to develop an intolerant and narrow view of the world,

according to Dr. Jenna Scaramanga of University College London's Faculty of Education and Society. She argues that the ACE curriculum is infused with religious messaging and supernatural elements, which presents a misleading view of science. As an example, it heavily promotes creationism, or the theory that God created the world in seven days, while evolution and climate change is described as unscientific, absurd and discredited. The curriculum also promotes the theory that humans and dinosaurs coexisted on earth. Scaramanga also found, quote, while some participants found their

ACE experience beneficial, the majority experienced inadequate education, sexism, homophobia, excessive punishment and discrimination against those considered ungodly. As examples, Pace workbooks feature colorful comic strips using a group of cartoon characters to show how a good Christian should respond to various life situations. Obedience is of course featured in many of these comics. In one, as a boy helps his dad with some chores, a cartoon thought bubble over his head says, It is easy to obey those who rule over me. Just listening to the words in the Bible helps me In another, a teacher tells a student, The scripture says if you obey you will have a long life.

It is best to obey and trust parents' judgment. Parents are wiser than their children. Other comic strips have been described as misogynistic, with a key theme of women submitting to their husbands and girls dressing modestly. This kind of messaging resulted in Norway outright banning the curriculum for violating their Gender Equality Act. The ACE system has also been previously criticized for overt racism. Early versions of the curriculum defended the South African apartheid, according to a May

2023 paper by Dr. Scaramanga and her co-author Professor Michael Reese. Quote, ACE is likely to instill closed-mindedness in its students through the use of forced compliance, conformity pressures, and extrinsic rewards. In another article, Janis Garamanga writes, quote, This insistence on total obedience is at odds with effective education. To be successful human beings, children must learn how to think for themselves, how to question the information they are given, and challenge authority when that authority is wrong.

By forcing children to obey, ACE shows, that the education part of its name is not its true goal at all. I could go on for hours about this curriculum, but what does it have to do with the criminal allegations of physical, sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse of students at their school? It all comes down to the difference between education and indoctrination. Obviously, there's a spectrum, because not all indoctrination is harmful, and of course all public education has some level of indoctrination,

but what's important is the purpose behind it. Indocrination is designed to tell a person what to think instead of how to think. It is the opposite of education, according to noted public intellectual Noam Chomsky. He has stated that the purpose of education is to help people to learn on their own, question and create, and it should prioritize individual thinking. and questioning authority. Quote, people have the idea that from childhood, young people have to be placed into a framework

where they're going to follow orders. Do you train for passing tests or creative inquiry? When indoctrination hinders a child's ability to gather data and make informed decisions and discoveries, that leaves them vulnerable to being taken advantage of by others. There just was this huge expectation from us as the children. And everything that was done, all the rules and everything were to the benefit of the teachers and the staff. It was not to the benefit of the students ever, which as a parent, I see how the public school here is set up.

Everything they do is to try and improve the experience for the child. And it was the complete opposite for us. It probably comes as no surprise to hear that accelerated Christian education has been involved in many lawsuits, including more than 150 just in its first 20 years, and most of them have related to accreditation. But the organisation appears to be extremely stubborn, according to Scaramanga and Reese. Its position is that Christian schools should not be regulated in any way. and they have used litigation to defend this belief in the USA and elsewhere. Now, obviously, this belief might be good and well

if the school is truly operating independently without government funding, but that's not what is happening with qualified independent schools in Saskatchewan. The ACE curriculum is not accredited with any Canadian departments of education. But is it consistent with the goals of education for Saskatchewan? and are the programs and courses approved in accordance with the provincial curriculum policy? The Leader Post asked Education Minister Dustin Duncan, who mentioned the government had already made changes to the curriculum. He stated that the ministry is satisfied with the Pace workbooks,

describing them as, quote, what you would by and large see in a public school, aside from obviously aspects of incorporating scripture or that sort of thing as part of the lesson plan. which should not be a surprise. In November of 2022, Caitlin and other former students travelled to the Saskatchewan Legislature

to demand that the government banned this curriculum. They also pointed out that in the spring of 2022, just a few months before the allegations went public, Education Minister Duncan announced a 25% increase in funding to qualified independent schools, meaning they would now be eligible for 75% of the per-student funding that public schools get. Caitlin tweeted, quote, Minister Duncan met with myself and two former students after the media scrum.

I asked him straight up what kind of school his children attend. He answered, Harvest City Christian Academy. That's where we'll leave it for part two, but part three is waiting for you right now. Audio editing was by We Talk of Dreams who composed the theme songs. Production assistance was by Jesse Hawke with script consulting by Carol Weinberg. Research, writing, narration and sound design was by me,

and the disclaimer was voiced by Eric Crosby.